The word howdah is an Anglo-Indian term for the seat used for riding an elephant. Symbols of status in the princely courts, they were ridden in hunts, battles, and ceremonial processions.
The profuse detailing of this howdah recalls the opulence manifested in the princely courts after Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in 1877. The Indian rajas, formerly heads of independent Indian states, became vassals of the British empire. Prevented from exercising any real power, they could only demonstrate their strength through lavish displays of pomp and ceremony. Their impressive appearance at official British governmental functions ironically lent greater authority to the British control of India.

The ornamentation of this howdah provides evidence of the great influence exerted by European taste upon decorative objects made for the Indian courts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The work was probably carried out by Indian artisans who proved quite adept at copying and altering Victorian designs. Some of the decorative motifs are clearly hybrid forms. For instance, the motif of the fish spewing either a horse or a winged female combines elements found independently in Indian and European art. The floral and border decorations are also alterations and recombinations of motifs from these different traditions.
The motifs embossed on the front, sides, and back of the howdah are not genuine coats of arms but pseudo-heraldic decorations inspired by the English (sides and back) and Scottish (front) royal arms. While these have been deliberately altered – most noticeably in the substitution of a rayed pattern for the central shield – certain details, such as the scrolling foliage beneath the shields and supporters, suggest that the chaser was working from an engraved source, such as that reproduced in contemporary editions of Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage. The appropriation of these emblems as major decorative elements and the appearance of two Indian attendants dressed in European military costumes on the front suggest a conscious effort to display regal authority in European terms.
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